While standing in line at the local Åhléns media department
(national store chain) with the latest catch from their sales bin (one
techno single, one
jazz album and one
'80:s compilation),
my eyes caught a specific little CD cover behind the clerk. It
was a blue cover with a voluptuous bikini girl on it. With the
evil-grinning face of a rather familiar bearded man. Having seen the
video for 'Windowlicker', I just had to ask the clerk if that was in
fact the latest Aphex Twin release. It sure was, which surprised the
hell out of me, given their apparent focus on ultra-mainstream chart
music. Even more surprising, when asked, the clerk had actually listened
to it, could comment on it, and (without being specific) could relate it
to earlier releases by the Twin. I was, in a word, stumped.
Heck, maybe the world is changing for the better, after all.
This track wouldn't feel entirely misplaced on the
Come To Daddy MCD;
it's pretty much in the same style
as some of the non-title tracks of that release, blending rather odd
and somewhat soft
haunted melodies with hysterical cut-ups and edits, this time over
a Twin-ified old-school
electro-style drumbeat (the kind that black people did with drum
machines in the early
'80:s after listening heavily to
Kraftwerk).
A chunk in the middle of the track even have that disted sound
of said 'Come To Daddy', albeit with this new, softer backing beat.
The video is simply hilarious (and long!), poking fun at
all those rap videos in recent years with tons-of-bikini-girls-with-huge-breasts-bouncing-in-slow-motion,
but, since it's an Aphex Twin video, they all have the face of
Richard D. James himself
instead (or, as in some cases, just really, really ugly evil-grinning
faces, often with
large beards). Also, there's this thin guy in a white suit, looking
like the Twin, doing
his best Michael Jackson style
grabbing-crotch-while-standing-on-his-toes poses and dancing
around with a fallistic Aphex-logo umbrella. The interested reader can
ind the video
here
(link to http://www.warprecords.com) in RealMedia format, zipped to about 6MB.
The second track has, for some odd reason, a completely unwritable title
unless
you've got some half-decent equation writer (mine was, as indicated, merely
half-decent,
but eventually got the job done - can you say Microsoft?). Looks mostly
like math-style
jibberish to me, but it might just be that I don't know much about that
particular
branch of science. Until proven otherwise, I'll assume it means nothing
and is just
there for the "coolness factor".
The track itself is more hysterical than the A-side, more cut-up and weird
(in a good
way), and in a certain sense also reminiscent of some tracks off
Come To Daddy. Not too melodic, but that's
hardly a requirement for an excellent Twin track.
The last track is more old-style semi-ambient Aphex Twin, quite
minimalistic
with a tinkly little music-box melody over a stripped-down mechanical rhythm.
It's what those Fischer-Price music toys would sound like if designed by
someone
haunted by a childhood of broken toys. Or something. It's actually quite good.
For some reason, the title brings vivid images of a hysterical Robin Williams
to mind,
dressed in tight, intensely colourful, striped sweaters. And really, really
large eggs.
